Biopesticides are increasingly finding use in agricultural and horticultural settings for pest control. The potential benefit of biopesticides, especially relative to chemical pesticides, continues to spur the search for new biocontrol agents. For example, biopesticides create less pollution and environmental hazards than chemical pesticides. Further biopesticides appear to cause less problem with the development of drug resistance in the pathogenic organisms.
One significant agricultural pest amenable to control using biopesticides is the nematode. Nematode damage to crops is estimated to be more than $3 billion per year yet only about $180 million per year is spent in combating nematode diseases. Since chemical pesticide control of nematodes is relatively expensive, it is thus only used on high value crops. Effective biocontrol agents for nematodes, which are generally cheaper to produce than chemical nematocides, thus promise to improve economic yield for a wider variety of crops.
Another major agricultural problem leading to widespread damage in plants is caused by fungal diseases caused by root rotting organisms. Often the best available methods to combat fungal diseases are chemical fungicides or to use fungus resistant plant cultivars. Such methods of disease management often are neither practical nor desirable. Consequently, biopesticides provide another resource for control of fungal diseases.
Accordingly, S. dicklowii and culture media from an S. dicklowii culture provide a new and effective nematocidal and fungicidal agent for the control of nematodes and fungi that infect plants, especially economically important crop plants. Moreover, the present S. dicklowii have been shown to inhibit nematode reproduction and nematode egg-laying.